Ecumenical Commemoration
Friar & Deacon of Assisi
October 4 · d. 1226
also known as Giovanni di Bernardone, Francis of Assisi, Il Poverello
Francis of Assisi was the merchant's son who gave away everything to follow Christ in poverty, and who founded the Friars Minor, the great order of preaching brothers. The church remembers him as the Poverello, the little poor man, who preached to the birds, tamed the wolf of Gubbio, made the first Christmas crib, and near the end of his life received in his own body the wounds of the crucified Lord. He died in 1226 singing his Canticle of the Sun.
Francis was born about the year 1181 in Assisi, a hill town in Umbria, in central Italy, the son of a rich cloth merchant named Pietro di Bernardone. He grew up with money to spend and dreamed of glory as a knight, until imprisonment and a long illness turned him inward and he began to hear another call. Praying one day in the crumbling little church of San Damiano outside the walls, he heard the voice of Christ speak from the painted crucifix: "Francis, go and repair my house, which as you can see is falling into ruin." He took the words plainly, and set to mending the broken chapel with his own hands.
To pay for the work he sold cloth from his father's stores, and his father, furious, dragged him before Bishop Guido of Assisi to disown him and reclaim the money. There, before the whole town, Francis did a thing no one forgot. He stripped off his fine clothes, laid them at his father's feet, and stood naked in front of them all. From this hour, he said, he would call no man father but his Father in heaven. The bishop wrapped his own cloak around him, and Francis walked out with nothing, and was glad. He had found the poverty he would be wedded to for the rest of his life. He would write later that the Lord had led him among the lepers he once could not bear to look at, "and I showed mercy to them," in Paschal Robinson's translation, and that what had seemed bitter to him was changed into sweetness.
Others came to join him, and Francis gave them the plainest rule of all, the words of the Gospel itself: leave everything, take nothing for the journey, preach the kingdom of God. They went barefoot through the towns of Italy, begging their bread and calling every creature brother and sister, for all were made by the one Father. Seeing a great flock of birds by the road, Francis once went and preached to them, telling his little sisters the birds to praise their Creator who fed them and gave them feathers and the free air to fly in; and they did not fly away until he blessed them. At Gubbio, where a fierce wolf had been devouring the townsfolk's flocks and even the people, he went out to meet it, and when it rushed at him he made the sign of the cross and called: "Come hither, brother wolf; I command thee, in the name of Christ, neither to harm me nor anybody else," in Thomas Okey's translation of the Little Flowers. The wolf lay down at his feet like a lamb, and Francis made peace between it and the town.
At Christmas in 1223, in the little town of Greccio, he set up a manger with hay and a live ox and ass, so the people could see with their own eyes how poor and small the King of heaven had made himself for their sake. It was the first Christmas crib, and the custom went out from Greccio to the whole world.
Then, in September of 1224, Francis climbed the lonely mountain of La Verna, in Tuscany, to pray and fast toward the feast of Saint Michael. There, in a vision of a six-winged seraph bearing the figure of the crucified Christ, the marks of the nails were pressed into his own hands and feet, and his side was opened as by a lance. He carried the wounds of Jesus in his body for the two years left to him, and hid them as best he could. He was going blind now, and often in pain, and in that last suffering he made his Canticle of the Sun, praising God through Brother Sun and Sister Moon, through Brother Wind and Sister Water and Brother Fire, and through Sister Mother Earth. As death drew near he added a final verse, praising his Lord "for our sister, the bodily death, from the which no living man can flee," in Robinson's translation. He asked to be laid on the bare ground, and there, singing, he welcomed Sister Death as he had welcomed everything the Father sent him, and went home to the Lord he had followed with such gladness, on the evening of the third of October, 1226.
How we know Francis is that he stands among the best-attested saints of the Middle Ages, remembered close to the events by men who had known him, and in his own surviving words. He left writings of his own, chief among them his Rule, his brief and searching Testament, and the vernacular Canticle of the Sun, one of the earliest poems in the Italian tongue. He was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on the sixteenth of July, 1228, less than two years after his death, and the bull of canonization, Mira circa nos, survives. The first full life, the Vita Prima, was written at Gregory's own commission by Thomas of Celano and finished in 1228 or 1229, drawing on the memories of those who had lived with Francis; Celano added a second life about 1247. In 1260 the order asked its Minister General, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, for a single authorized life, and his Legenda Maior, finished about 1263, became the official biography; in 1266 the friars gathered at Paris ordered the earlier lives set aside, which is why Celano's Vita Prima was long lost and only later recovered.
The stigmata belong to this early and well-documented layer, not to later legend. The church long held, and holds still, that Francis received in his flesh the wounds of the crucified Christ on Mount La Verna in September 1224, and the witness is remarkably close to him. The very day after his death, Brother Elias, whom Francis himself had set over the order, wrote an encyclical letter to the friars announcing his passing and describing the five wounds he had seen on the body; Thomas of Celano set the stigmata at the center of the Vita Prima within three years; and Gregory IX affirmed them in the years that followed. The early Franciscans gathered sworn statements from those who had seen the marks. It is one of the best-attested wonders in the whole record of the saints, held by the church from the first as a true sharing in the sufferings of Christ, and it is honored as such.
Other beloved episodes reach us later and by a different road, and are best received for what they are. The wolf of Gubbio, the fullest form of the sermon to the birds, and much else that the world knows and loves come from the Fioretti, the Little Flowers of St. Francis, an Italian book put together at the end of the fourteenth century out of older Latin material and the oral traditions of the order, more than a century and a half after Francis died. The church carried these tales across Christendom because they caught something true about the man the earlier lives already showed, the man who called the creatures brother and sister and would make peace with a wolf. Whether or not the wolf of Gubbio lay down exactly as the Little Flowers tells it, the story is part of how the church has understood Francis for six hundred years, and it grew from soil the earliest and soberest sources had already prepared.
Francis's feast is kept on October 4, the day after his death, across the Western churches and in the Anglican calendars, and he is honored in the East as well. He is the patron of Italy, and in our own day was named patron of ecology; above all he is the patron of animals, and on or near his feast churches everywhere hold the blessing of animals, when people bring their dogs and cats and horses and birds to be blessed in his name. The Christmas crib he first set up at Greccio in 1223 became the manger scene now kept in countless homes and churches every December. His Canticle of the Sun lives on in English chiefly through the paraphrase "All creatures of our God and King," which William Draper made from it early in the twentieth century; the hymn is a free rendering, not Francis's own words, but it has carried his praise of the creatures into the mouths of millions. At the little chapel of the Portiuncula below Assisi, the Franciscan mother-church he loved above all others, pilgrims still seek the Portiuncula indulgence. In art he is shown in the plain brown habit and knotted cord, often preaching to the birds or bearing the marks of the stigmata on his hands.
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The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi (Rule, Testament, Canticle of the Sun, letters and admonitions)(Latin/Italian, 1905 (tr.))
Francis's own words: the Rule, the Testament, and the Canticle of the Sun, in a public-domain scholarly translation.
Public domain: Paschal Robinson translation (1905)
The Legenda Maior (The Life of St. Francis)(Latin, c. 1263)
The official medieval biography, commissioned by the order and made its authorized life; it displaced the earlier lives and shaped every later portrait of Francis.
Public domain: E. Gurney Salter translation (1904)
The Little Flowers of St. Francis (Fioretti)(Italian, late 14th c.)
The best-loved of the traditional collections, source of the wolf of Gubbio and the fuller sermon to the birds; a devotional florilegium, not an early source.
Public domain: Thomas Okey translation (Everyman, 1910)
St. Francis of Assisi(English, 1923)
Recommended: G. K. Chesterton
The finest short lay introduction in English, a believing and luminous portrait, still in print.
Francis of Assisi: A New Biography(English, 2012)
Recommended: Augustine Thompson, OP
The fullest careful modern life from within the believing tradition, sifting the early sources with a historian's rigor and a friar's reverence.
Primary sources. Francis left writings of his own, gathered in The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi, translated by Paschal Robinson (1905), which contains his Rule, his Testament, and the Canticle of the Sun; it is public domain and freely online. The earliest lives are the two by Thomas of Celano and the Legenda Maior of Bonaventure; the modern standard edition of all the sources is Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, edited by Regis Armstrong, Wayne Hellmann, and William Short (three volumes). The beloved Little Flowers of St. Francis (Fioretti), though late, remains the most widely loved of the traditional collections; Thomas Okey's Everyman translation is public domain and online.
Principal hagiography. Bonaventure's Legenda Maior is the classic authorized life and shaped every later portrait of the saint; it is available in E. Gurney Salter's public-domain translation and in modern editions.
Recommended modern biography. For a lay reader who wants the man himself, G. K. Chesterton's St. Francis of Assisi (1923) remains the finest short introduction in English, a believing and luminous portrait still in print. For the fullest careful life from within the believing tradition, Augustine Thompson OP's Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (Cornell, 2012) sifts the early sources with a historian's rigor and a friar's reverence, distinguishing the securely attested Francis from the later legend without ever losing the saint.
Further reading. Regis Armstrong and William Short's Francis of Assisi: Early Documents is the scholar's gateway to all the primary material in English translation.
Online resources. Robinson's Writings of St. Francis of Assisi and Okey's Little Flowers are both freely available online, as is Salter's translation of Bonaventure's Life of St. Francis.
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Francis was first named John, but after his name was changed and was called Francis. The cause of changing of his name was manifold. First, for the reason of his marvellous changing, for it is known that he received of God by miracle the French tongue, and it is said in his legend that when he was replenished of the grace of God, and of the ardour of the Holy Ghost he pronounced out burning words in French. Secondly, by the reason to publish his office, whereof is said in his legend that, the divine providence gave to him that name, because of his singular and inaccustomed name, the opinion of his mystery might be known throughout all the world. Thirdly, by reason of his office in effect, whereupon was given to understand that by him and by his sons he should make many servants of the devil and bond to sin, free. Fourthly, by reason of great courage and magnanimity of heart. For Frenchmen be said of fierceness, for in them is natural fierceness and great courage of heart. Fifthly, by reason of virtuosity in speaking, for his word carved away the vices like an axe. Sixthly, by reason that he chased away commonly the devils. Seventhly, by reason of honesty in his conversation, and of perfection of work. And it is said that some signs that were borne in Rome tofore the consuls, which were in terror of the people and in worship, were called Franciscas.
Of S. Francis.
Francis, servant and friend of Almighty God, was born in the city of Assisi, and was made a merchant unto the twenty-fifth year of his age, and wasted his time by living vainly, whom our Lord corrected by the scourge of sickness, and suddenly changed him into another man, so that he began to shine by the spirit of prophecy. For on a time he with other men of Perugia was taken prisoner, and were put in a cruel prison, where all the others wailed and sorrowed, and he only was glad and enjoyed. And when they had reproved him thereof, he answered: Know you, said he, that I am joyful, for I shall be worshipped as a saint through all the world.
On a time he went to Rome because of devotion, and he took off all his clothes and clad him with the clothes of a beggar, and sat among the poor men tofore the church of S. Peter, and as one of them, begged and ate eagerly with them, and much oftener would have done, but the shame of being known of people letted him. The old enemy the devil enforced him to let him of his holy purpose, and showed to him a woman monstrous and horribly disfigured, crookbacked and lame, which was in that city, and he said to him if he left not that he had enterprised, he would make him semblable and like unto her. But he was comforted of our Lord, which heard a voice saying to him: Francis, take these bitter things for the sweet, and despise yourself if you desire to know me.
On a time he met a leper whom naturally men abhor, but he remembered him of the word that was said of God, and ran to him and kissed him, and anon the lazar vanished away, wherefore he went to the habitation of the lazars and kissed devoutly their hands, and gave to them money, and let them have no need of such as he might do.
On a time he entered into the church of S. Damian for to make his prayers, and the image of Jesu Christ spake unto him and said: Francis, go and repair my house which is all destroyed as you see. And from that hour the soul of him liquefied, and the passion of Jesu Christ was marvellously infixed in his heart. And then he did great pain, and was busy in repairing the church, and sold all that he had, and gave the money thereof to a priest, and he durst not receive it for fear of his parents and kin. Then he, casting it away tofore the priest as dust, setting not thereby, wherefore he was taken of his father and bound, and he restored to him his money, and resigned also his clothes, and so naked he fled to our Lord, and clad him with hair. And then the blessed Francis went unto a simple man, whom he took instead of his father, and prayed him that like as
his father doubled on him his curses, that in contrary he should bless him. His own brother germane seeing him in a winter time have on him but foul and few clothes, and that he trembled for cold and was entending to his prayers, said to his fellow: Go to Francis and say to him that he sell to you a pennyworth of his sweat. And when he heard it he answered with a glad cheer: I will sell it unto my Lord God. On a day he heard in the church that which our Lord said to his disciples when he sent them to preach, and anon he addressed him with all his might to do and keep all those things; he did off his hosen and shoon from his feet and clad him with a foul coat, and took a cord for his girdle. He went on a time in a snow by a wood, and was taken by thieves, and they demanded him what he was, and he said that he was the messenger of God, and anon they took him and cast him in the snow, saying to him: Lie there, you villain messenger of God. Many noble and unnoble clerks and laymen had despised the world and begun to follow him, and the holy father enseigned and taught them the perfection of the gospel, which was for to be in poverty, and that they should go by the way of simpleness. He wrote then a rule, after the gospel, to himself and his brethren, had and to be had, which Pope Innocent confirmed. And from then forthon he began to spread more ardently the seeds of the Word of God, and went about cities and castles by a fervent and marvellous desire. There was a friar which seemed outward of marvellous holiness, and kept silence so straitly that he would not be shriven by words but by signs, and every man praised him as a saint. This holy man Francis came thither and said: Leave you brethren to praise him, for I shall not yet praise him lest it be by feigntise of the devil, let him be warned to be shriven twice in the week by word and speaking, and if he do it not, this is but temptation of the devil and fraudulous deceit. And then the friars warned him so to do, and he put his finger to his mouth, and shook his head, and showed that in no wise he would confess him. And anon after he returned again to worldly life as a hound to his vomit, and went out of his order, and finished his life in sinful acts and works.
On a time S. Francis was weary of going, and rode upon an ass, and his fellow, one Leonard of Assisi, was also weary of going, and S. Francis began to think thus and to say in himself: His kin and my kin were not like, and incontinent he alighted down, and said to the friar: It appertains not to me to ride and you to go afoot, for you are more noble than I am. And the friar was abashed, and kneeled down and required pardon.
On a time, as he passed by a place, a noble lady ran so hastily against him that she might not speak for weariness, and he asked of her what she would. And she said: Pray for me, father, for I may not perform the purpose of health which I have begun, for my husband, which lets me, does to me many adversities in the service of God. And he said to her: Go your way, daughter, for you shall have anon comfort of him, and say to your husband, in God's name and mine, that now is the time of health, and hereafter shall be time of equity and right. And when she had said so to her husband, the man was suddenly changed and avowed to God continence and chastity.
On a time a poor labourer was almost lost in a wood for thirst. and this holy saint impetred a fountain by his prayers. He said on a time to a friar, that was familiar with him, this secret which was showed to him by the Holy Ghost. There is a servant of God living in the world on this day, for whose sake, as long as he shall live, our Lord shall suffer no famine among the people. But without doubt it is said that, when he was dead all that condition was changed to the contrary, for after his blessed death he appeared to the same friar and said to him: Lo! now is the famine come, which as long as I lived upon earth, our Lord would not suffer to come.
On an Easter day the friars Greek that were in desert had laid their table more curiously than in another time, and had made ready the glasses and set them on the board. And when S. Francis saw that he anon withdrew him, and set on his head the hat of a poor man which was there, and bare his staff in his hand, and went out and abode at the gate. And when the friars ate at dinner, he cried at the door that they should give for the love of God an alms to a poor sick man. Then the poor man was called in and entered and sat down alone upon the earth, and set his dish in the dust, which when the friars saw they were abashed and were sore aghast. And he said to them: I see the table arrayed and adorned, and I know well that it is not for poor men that seek their meat from door to door.
He loved poverty in himself and in all others, so that he always called poverty his lady, but when he saw one more poor than himself he had thereof envy, and doubted to be overcome of him. On a day he saw a poor woman and he showed her to his fellow and said: The poverty of this woman does to us shame, and reproves strongly our poverty, for, for my riches I have chosen my lady poverty, and she shines more in this woman than in me.
When on a time a poor man passed tofore him, and the holy man was moved with inward compassion, his fellow said to him: Though this man be poor, peradventure there is not a richer of his will in all the province. Then S. Francis said to him anon: Despoil you of your coat and give it to the poor man, and knowledge yourself culpable and kneel down to his feet, to whom anon he obeyed and did so.
On a time three women like of visage and all things, and of habit, entered and met him, and saluted in this manner: Welcome my lady poverty, and anon they vanished away and were no more seen.
On a time as he came to the city of Arezzo, and a mortal battle was moved in the city, this holy man saw within the burgh, on the ground, the devils making joy and were glad. Then he called his fellow named Silvester, and said to him: Go to the gate of the city and command to these devils in God's name, that is Almighty, that they go out of the city. Then he went hastily and cried strongly: All you devils depart from hence in the name of God and by the commandment of Francis our Father. And they went away, and then the citizens anon became to accord.
The foresaid Sylvester when he was yet a secular priest saw in his sleep a golden cross issue out of the mouth of S. Francis, of the which the over end touched heaven and the arms of the cross stretched forth from that one to that other part of the world. Then this priest had compunction and left the world, and followed perfectly this holy man Francis. And on a time as this holy man was in prayer, the devil called him thrice by his own name, and when the holy man had answered him, he said: None in this world is so great a sinner, but if he convert him our Lord would pardon him, but who that slays himself by hard penance shall never find mercy. And anon this holy man knew by the revelation the fallacy and deceit of the fiend, how he would have withdrawn him for to do well. And when the devil saw that he might not prevail against him, he tempted him by grievous temptation of the flesh, and when this holy servant of God felt that, he despoiled him of his clothes and beat himself right hard with a hard cord, saying: Thus, brother ass, it behoves you to remain and to be beaten; and when the temptation departed not, he went out and plunged himself in the snow all naked, and made seven great balls of snow and purposed to have taken them into his body and said: This greatest is your wife, and of these four, two be your daughters, and two your sons, and the other twain, that one your chamberer, and that other your varlet or yeoman; haste you and clothe them, for they all die for cold, and if your business that you have about them grieve you sore, then serve our Lord perfectly. And anon the devil departed from them all confused, and S. Francis returned again into his cell glorifying God.
And as he dwelled on a time with Leo the cardinal of S. Cross, in a night the devils came to him and beat him right grievously. Then he called his fellow and said to him: These be devils, jailers of our Lord, whom he sends to punish the excesses, but I can remember me of none offences that I have done, but by the mercy of God I have washed them away by satisfaction. But peradventure he has sent me them because he will not suffer me to fall, because I dwell in the courts of great lords, which thing peradventure engenders not good suspection to my right poor brethren, which suppose I abound in delices. And early in the morning he arose and departed thence.
On a time, as he was in his prayers, he saw upon the covering of the house assemblies and companies of devils which ran hither and thither with great noise, and he went out, and signed him with the sign of the cross, and said: I say to you in the name of Almighty God that you devils do to my body all that is suffered to you to do, and I shall suffer it patiently. For I have no greater enemy than my body, and you shall avenge me of mine adversary, whiles you take on it vengeance by my life. Then they vanished away all confused.
There was a friar which was fellow of S. Francis was on a time ravished, and saw in spirit the glorious place in heaven, wherein he saw, among other seats, a right noble seat, shining of more noble glory than all the others. And as he marvelled for whom this noble seat was kept, he heard that it was said that this seat belonged sometime to one of the princes that fell, and is now made ready to the meek and humble Francis.
And when S. Francis issued from his prayers, that friar demanded him: Father, what weenest thou of yourself? And he said: I ween that I am greatest of all sinners. And anon the spirit came into the heart of the friar and said: Behold what was the vision that you saw, for humility shall lift up the most meek man unto the seat lost by pride.
This holy man S. Francis saw in a vision above him, Seraphin crucified, the which emprinted in him the signs of his crucifying, that him seemed that he was crucified, and that in his hands, his feet, and in his side, him seemed were the sign of the wounds of the crucifying, but he did hide these tokens as much as he might, that no man should see them. And yet nevertheless some saw them in his life, and at his death they were seen of many, and were showed by many miracles that those signs were true. Of which miracles twain shall suffice for to be set here. There was a man named Rogier, and was in Apulia tofore the image of S. Francis, and began to think and say: May this be true that this man was so ennobled by such miracle, or was this an illusion or an invention dissimuled of his brethren the friars? And as he thought this, he heard suddenly a sound like as a quarel had been shot out of an arbalaste or a crossbow, and he felt him grievously hurt in his left hand, but there appeared no hurt in his glove, and then he took off his glove, and saw in the palm of his hand a wound as it had been of an arrow, out of which wound there issued so great pain of ache and burning, that almost he died for sorrow and pain. And then he repented him, and said that he believed right verily the signs and tokens of S. Francis; and when he had prayed by two days S. Francis by his holy signs and stigmata, he was anon delivered of his pain and made all whole.
In the realm of Castile there was a man devout to S. Francis which went on a time to compline to the church of S. Francis. And men lay in await for to slay him, and instead of another man he was taken by error and ignorance, and was wounded and left as half dead; and after, the cruel murderer stuck his sword in his throat, and left it therein, and might not draw it out, but went his way. And then men cried and ran hither and thither, and the man was bewailed like as he had been dead. And when they rang to matins at midnight at the church of the friars, the wife of the man began to cry: Arise up, sire, and go to matins, for the bell calls you. And anon he lifted up his hand to show that some man should take away the sword from his throat, and anon in the sight of them all the sword sprang out afar as it had been thrown of a strong champion, and anon the man arose perfectly whole, and said that S. Francis came to him and joined his stigmatas to my wounds, and anointed them with the sweetness of his signs and sewed them together marvellously by his touching. And when he would have gone, I showed him that he should take away the sword for else I should not con speak, and anon he took it out, and threw it away far from him, and healed me with touching my throat with his signs.
The two clerks, great luminaries of the world, that is to say S. Dominic and S. Francis, were in the city of Rome tofore the Lord Hostience, which afterward was pope of Rome. And this bishop said to them: Wherefore make you not of your friars bishops and prelates, which should prevail more by teaching and example giving? And there
was long contention between them who should first answer, and humility overcame Francis that he would not speak tofore that other, and then S. Dominic humbly obeyed and said: Sire, our brethren be lifted up in good degree if they know it, and I shall never suffer to my power that ever they shall hope to have any higher dignity. After that answered S. Francis: Sire, my brethren be called minors, because they would not be made greater. And the blessed S. Francis full of right great simplicity admonished and warned all creatures to love their creator. He preached to birds and was heard of them, they suffered him to touch them, and without licence they would not return ne flee from him. And on a time when he preached, the swallows chittered and sang, and anon by his commandment they were still. There was also, on a time, a bird on a fig-tree beside his cell which sang oft full sweetly. And S. Francis put forth his hand and called that bird, and anon the bird obeyed and came upon his hand. And he said to her, Sing my sister and praise your Lord, and then anon she sang, and departed not till she had licence.
He spared to touch lights, lamps, and candles, because he would not defile them with his hands. He went honourably upon the stones for the worship of him that was called Stone. He gathered the small worms out of the way because they should not be trodden with the feet of them that passed by. He commanded in winter to give honey unto bees, that they should not perish for hunger. He called all beasts his brethren. He was replenished of marvellous joy for the love of his Creator. He beheld the sun, the moon, and the stars, and summoned them to the love of their Maker. He defended for to make him a great crown, saying: I will that my simple brethren have part in my head.
There was a secular man which saw S. Francis, the servant of God, preaching at S. Severin's, and saw by revelation of God, that S. Francis was stretched on a cross made of two clear swords, of which that one came from his head to his feet, and that other stretched from that one hand to that other, so that he never had seen such a demonstrance. Then he was moved in his heart, and entered into the order, and finished goodly his life.
On a time, as S. Francis was sick on his eyes for continual weeping, his brethren said to him that he should refrain him from weeping, and he answered: The visitation of the light perdurable is not to be put away for the light that we have here with the flies. And when his brethren constrained him to take a medicine for his eyes, and the surgeon held a burning iron in his hand, the blessed Francis said: My brother fire, be you to me in this hour debonair and curable: I pray to our Lord that made you, that you attemper my heat. And then he made the sign of the cross against the fire, and the fiery iron was put in his tender flesh from his ear unto his eyelids, and he felt no pain.
He was strongly sick in the desert of S. Urban, and when he felt that nature failed in him he asked for to drink wine, and there was none. And they brought to him water, and he blessed it and made the sign of the cross thereon, and it was converted and turned into right good wine. And the holy man gat of our Lord that which the poverty of the desert might not get. And as soon as he had tasted it, he became strong and was all whole.
He had liefer hear blame of himself than praising, and for because that the people praised in him anything of merit of holiness, he commanded to some brother to say to him in his ear some villainy in blaming him and defouling. And when such a brother, so constrained against his will, called him villain merchant, and unprofitable fool, then was he glad and blessed him, and said: God bless you, for you say right very true words, and this thing appertains to me for to hear.
And this holy S. Francis would never be more master ne governor, but he would be more subject, ne so willingly command as obey. And therefore he left for to be general, and demanded to be under the warden, to whose will he always submitted himself in all things. He promised always obedience to the friar with whom he went, and kept it.
When a friar had done something against the rule of obedience, and had sign of penance, yet this holy S. Francis, for to fear others, commanded to cast the hood of him into the fire, and when it had been a while in the fire, he commanded to take it out and give it again to the friar, and the hood , was taken out of the fire without hurt.
He went on a time by the morass of Venice and found there a great multitude of birds singing and he said to his fellows: Our sisters, these birds, give laud to their Maker, let us go in the middle of them, and sing we our hours canonical to our Lord. And they entered in among them and they moved not, but because they might not hear each other for the chittering and noise of birds he said: My sister birds, cease your songs till we have yielded unto our Lord due praisings. And then they held them still, and when they had finished their lauds, he gave to them licence to sing again, and anon they reprised their song after their custom.
He was on a time harboured with a knight, and S. Francis said to him: Brother, fair host, agree to that I shall say to you, confess your sins, for you shall soon eat in another place. And anon he granted that to him, and ordained for his meiny, and took penance of health. And also soon as they went to the table the host died suddenly.
On a time he found a great multitude of birds, and then he said to them: My brethren, you ought strongly to praise and give laud to your Maker which has clad you with feathers and has given to you pens for to fly and has granted you the purity of the air and governed you without charge or business. And the birds turned their beaks or bills to him and spread their wings, and stretched their necks and addressed their heads and beheld him intently. And he passed forth by the middle of them so nigh that he touched them with his coat, and none of them arose out from his place till he gave to them leave that they flew together.
On a time when he preached at the castle Almarye, and he might not be heard for the swallows which made their nests, to whom he said: My sister swallows, it is time that I speak, for you have said enough, be you now still till the word of God be accomplished. And they obeyed and were still anon.
And as this holy man S. Francis passed through Apulia, he found in his way a purse full of money, and when his fellow saw it, they would have taken it for to have given it to the poor people, but he would not suffer him in no manner, and said to him: Son, it appertains not to you to take the goods of others. And when his fellow hasted to take it S. Francis prayed a little, and after, commanded him to take the purse, which then found therein a great adder, instead of money. And when the friar saw that he began to doubt, but he would obey and took the purse in his hands, and there sprang out anon a serpent venomous. And then S. Francis said to him: Money is none other thing to the servant of God but the devil, which is a serpent venomous.
There was a friar grievously tempted, and he began to think that if he had anything written with the hand of their father S. Francis, that that temptation should be chased away anon, but he durst in no wise discover this thing. On a time S. Francis called him and said: Son, bring to me parchment and ink, for I will write something praising to God. And when he had written he said: Take this charter and keep it unto the day of your death diligently, and anon all his temptation went away. And the same friar, when S. Francis lay sick, began to think: Our Father approaches the death, and if I might have, after his death, his coat I should be greatly comforted. And after this the saint called him and said: I give to you this my coat; if you have thereto, after my death, plain right. He was lodged on a time in Alexandria, in Lombardy, with an honest man, which demanded him, if for the observance of the gospel he should eat of all that which was set tofore him, and he consented to the devotion of the host; and then the host did do make ready a capon of seven years old, and as they ate there came an untrue man which demanded alms for the love of God, and anon when this blessed man heard that blessed name, he sent to him a member of the capon, and the cursed man kept it. And on the morn when the holy man preached, he showed that piece of the capon, and said, Lo! see here what flesh this friar eats whom you honour as a saint, for he gave it to me yester even, but this piece of the capon was seen of all the people as it were fish, and that man was blamed of all the people, and said that he was mad, and when he understood it, he was ashamed and demanded pardon; and when this man came again to his good thought, the flesh returned again to his own kind and form.
On a time as he sat at the table, and collation was made of the poverty of the Blessed Virgin our Lady, anon S. Francis arose and began to weep and sob sorrowfully, so that his visage was all wet of tears, and began to eat the remnant of his bread upon the ground. He would also that right great reverence should be done to the hands of priests, to whom was given power to sacre the blessed sacrament of our Lord. And then he said oft: If it happed me to meet any saint coming from heaven, and also a poor priest, I would first go kiss the priest's hands, and would say to the saint: Holy saint, abide a while, for the hands of this priest have handled the son of life, and has performed a thing above humanity. He was ennobled in his life by many miracles, for the bread that was brought to him to bless gave health to many sick men. He converted the water into wine, of which a sick man anon tasted and received anon health, and also did many other miracles. And when his last days approached, and he was grieved by long infirmity; then he made himself to be laid upon the bare ground, and did do call all the friars that were there, and when they were all present he blessed them. And like as our Lord fed his disciples at supper on Shere-thursday, he gave to each of them a morsel of bread, and warned them, as he was wont to do, to give laud to their Maker. And the very death which is to all men horrible and hateful, he admonished them to praise it, and also he warned and admonished death to come to him, and said: Death, my sister, welcome be you; and when he came at the last hour, he slept in our Lord. Of whom a friar saw the soul in the manner of a star, like to the moon in quantity, and to the sun in clearness.
There was a friar named Augustin, which was minister and servant in the labour of the earth, and as he was in his last end, and had lost his speech, he escried suddenly and said: Abide me, father, abide, I shall go with you. Then the friars demanded him what he said, and he said: See you not our father Francis that goes unto heaven, and anon he slept in peace, and followed his holy father. A lady which had been devout to the blessed Francis died, and the clerks and priests were at the bier for to sing the exequies of her. She arose up suddenly off the bier, and called one of the priests that were there and said: Father, I would confess me; I was dead, and should have been put in a cruel prison, because I had not shriven me of a sin that I shall say, but S. Francis prayed for me, that this confessed and showed I shall have forgiveness, and anon as I shall have said and confessed it to you I shall rest in peace tofore you all. And then she was confessed and assoiled, and rested anon in our Lord.
The friars of Viterbo would have borrowed a cart of a man, and he answered in despite: I had liefer see two of you flayed with S. Francis than I should lend you my cart, but he came again to himself and reproved himself, and repented him of the blame that he had said, and doubted the ire of God. And anon his son was sick and died, and when he saw his son dead he slept on the earth weeping, and called S. Francis and said: I am he that sinned, you should have beaten me, give again to me, holy saint, praying devoutly to you, whom you have taken away from me, blaming you and blaspheming wickedly. And anon his son revived and said: When I was dead S. Francis led me by a long way and dark, and at the last he brought me unto a right fair green, and after said to me: Return to your father, I will no longer hold you. There was a poor man which owed unto a certain rich man a quantity of money, and prayed him, for the love of S. Francis, he would prolong the term of payment. To whom he answered proudly: I shall set you in such a place that neither Francis ne none other shall help you. And anon he took and bound him, and set him in a dark prison, and anon after, S. Francis came thither and brake up the prison, and loosed his bonds and brought the man all safely to his own house. There was a knight which detracted the works and miracles of S. Francis, and on a time as he played at the dice, he being all enraged, and full of woodness and cruelness, said to them that stood by him: lf S. Francis be a saint, let come eighteen on the dice, and anon came in three dice in each of them six, and so it appeared nine times, at every time three sixes at each cast, and then he adjousting woodness to woodness, he said: If it be true that Francis be a saint, let a sword rive me through my body this day, and if he be no saint, that it escape safely. And when the playing at dice was ended, because he had made that prayer in sin, he said injury to his nephew, and he took his sword and stack it through his belly and slew him anon.
There was a man that had lost his thigh that he could not move it, and cried to S. Francis thus, saying: Help me, S. Francis, remember you of the devotion and of the service that I have done to you, for I carried you upon mine ass, and kissed your feet, and your hands, and now I die for pain of this right hard torment. Then the holy man appeared to him with a little staff that he held, which had the sign of Thau, and touched therewith the place of his pain, and the postume brake, and he received anon full health, but the sign of Thau abode alway in the same place. With that sign S. Francis was wont always to sign his letters.
There was a maid which dwelled in the mountains of Apulia in a castle, and her father and mother ne had but only this daughter, and she died, and her mother was much devout toward S. Francis, but then she was full of heaviness, and S. Francis appeared to her and said: Weep no more, for the light of your lantern is quenched, and it appertains not that I yield her again to you by your prayer. But yet the mother had affiance and trust in the saint, and would not suffer to bear away the body, but in calling S. Francis, she took her daughter that was dead and raised her up alive and whole. There was a little child in Rome fallen out of a window to the ground and died forthwith, and they called to S. Francis for help, and he was anon restored to life. In the city of Suessa, it happed that a house fell and slew a child, and when they had put the corpse in a chest for to bury, the mother called on S. Francis with all her devotion, and about midnight the child coughed and arose all whole, and began to praise God.
Friar James of Reaten had passed a flood in a vessel with other friars which were set aland, and he hasted so sore after to go out because he was last, and the ship recoiled backward into the water, so that he fell down into the deepest of the flood, and then all the friars prayed S. Francis for him, and he himself, as he might, with like devotion, called the holy saint unto his aid and help, in his heart, and that same friar began to go in the bottom of the water, as dry as he had gone on the earth, and caught the boat, which was drowned, and brought it to the bank, and came up without wetting of his clothes that he ware, ne never drop of water touched his coat ne wet nothing on him. Then let us devoutly pray this holy father, S. Francis, to be our succour and aid in our adversities and perils, and help, that by his merits we may after this short life come into everlasting life in heaven. Amen.
O God, your blessed Son became poor for our sake, and chose the Cross over the kingdoms of this world: Deliver us from an inordinate love of worldly things, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Francis of Assisi, may seek you with singleness of heart, behold your glory by faith, and attain to the riches of your everlasting kingdom, where we shall be united with our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings for a Monastic or Religious
Lamentations 3:22–33Psalm 1Hebrews 4:1–13 or Acts 2:42–47Mark 10:23–31
British (Received Pronunciation): Honorius /həˈnɔːriəs/; Portiuncula /ˌpɔːrtiˈʌŋkjʊlə/